Far Back Fridays presents: Marvel Phase 1 and Marvel Studios

Watching The Avengers this week, especially the extra features disks, I got to feel a little nostalgic about everything that’s happened in the Marvel Movie Universe. Before I go into my reflections, let me just say that if you buy the movie from Target you get an extra bonus disk that is a ‘making of’ the entire Phase 1. So, in a way if you get that disk, you really don’t have to read anything I’m about to say haha. But, I digress.

When I first saw Iron Man and I fell in love with it, there still wasn’t a clear look into what was going to happen with the Marvel Movies. I was extremely excited that Marvel had the ability to have complete control of the movies though, so I know they were going to be heading in the right direction. Before, studios like Fox and Sony had always had a stranglehold on the comic franchises. The movies they churned out ranged from terrible (Ghost Rider) to OK (Fantastic Four) to great (Spider-man 2), with everything in between. Even though I liked a lot of those movies, they weren’t written by comic book writers and they didn’t have that much heart. Then, Iron Man came along and changed the game up.

With Marvel movies being taken out of the inept hands of Avi Arad and helmed by Kevin Feige, we were being ushered in a new genre of superhero films. Ones that were written by comic book writers/super fans, for comic book readers. Before that, I can remember comics themselves not really selling that much, and a lot of comic book shops that I grew up with, having to sell out and start offering ‘Magic: The Gathering” tournaments just to make rent.

What’s ironic to me now, is that before Iron Man the movie, I had never even read one Iron Man comic. I had seen the 90’s cartoon show, which was horrible, but was not a fan of the character at all. I’ve always been more of a Spider-man Batman guy myself. Then, Robert Downy Jr. took over the persona of Tony Stark in such a natural and amusing way, that I couldn’t help but fall in love with the character. The movie was great, and got me back into reading Marvel Comics again.

With the subsequent movies of The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and finally Captain America. There was a cohesiveness with all the movies that there never was before. You knew that there was the possibility of seeing a team being ASSEMBLED. This is something that happens on a monthly basis in the comics, but something never before done in the movies. All of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in one movie at the same time! This unprecedented event was something that Marvel Studios had the foresight and faith to see it through, and make sure that it worked. Being one of the biggest movies of all time, it’s obvious that they made the best decision.

Where will we be going in Phase 2? Well, we know that with the end of The Avengers, Thanos is going to be the Big Bad. My thoughts are: Will the other Avengers be shown throughout the other solo movies. Will Cap show up wielding a shield in Iron Man 3? Will Bruce Banner get all green for the Cap movie? I really hope so. I also hope that all of the movies will feature the gems from the Infinity Gauntlet being tracked down by Thanos and company. Only time will tell, but I put my complete faith in Marvel Studios, and can’t wait to find out what’s going to come next!